other sets of people are human." -- Aldous Huxley
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Posted on Fri, Dec. 09, 2005
IN MY OPINION
When message and medium look to fool
BY LEONARD PITTS JR.
lpitts@herald.com
Thomas Jefferson understood.
He said that if asked to choose between government without newspapers or
newspapers without government, ''I should not hesitate for a moment to prefer
the latter.'' Jefferson knew that a free and adversarial press was the people's best
defense against the excesses of their government and a fundamental building
block of healthy democracy.
Unfortunately, that was 40 presidents ago.
The present president has a decidedly different view of the news media's role. His
administration sees the press as a thing to be bought. In fact, while political
manipulation of the news is hardly new, Team Bush has a long and singularly
sordid record of trying to turn the media into a wholly owned public relations
subsidiary.
Now they're taking their act on the road. And get this: They're doing it under the
guise of building democracy. Which is rather like stealing from the collection plate
under the guise of giving to the needy.
I refer you to last week's Los Angeles Times report that the Pentagon has been
secretly paying Iraqi newspapers to publish stories, written by American troops,
that reflect favorably upon the U.S. mission in that country. The stories, while
basically factual, are reportedly written so as to flatter U.S. forces and the Iraqi
government and to omit information or perspectives either might find
embarrassing. These press releases are presented to the Iraqi people as
independent reports by independent reporters.
One is appalled, but hardly surprised. After nearly five years of watching these
folks' truth-optional approach to dealing with the public, one is seldom surprised
anymore.
BUYING PRAISE
This is, after all, the same Bush administration that was caught buying praise from
an ethically challenged columnist -- in violation of federal laws against
propagandizing the public, according to a September report by the Government
Accountability Office. It's the same administration that allowed into the White
House press room as a reporter an Internet porn entrepreneur who wrote for a
GOP website. The same one that issues video reports favorable to its policies to be
broadcast without attribution as TV news. The same one that censors and
quashes its own scientific studies when they conflict with its preferred worldview.
So this is just more of the same in a new ZIP Code.
It will be argued by the usual sycophantic Bush enablers that what's being done is
justifiable. We are at war, they will say, and in war it is perfectly acceptable to
propagandize the enemy.
So it is. But the flaw in that logic is this: We are not at war with Iraq. We are at
war in Iraq against insurgents seeking to topple the government. At least, that's
the line put forth by Team Bush. Iraq, they say, is a sovereign nation to which we
are simply helping bring the joys of democracy -- one of which would be a free
press.
That being the case, you cannot justify telling covert lies to its people any more
than you can justify telling them to ours. You want to communicate something to
them? Buy an ad. Drop leaflets. Put up posters. But don't produce a commercial
and tell people it's news.
CREDIBILITY AT STAKE
Doing so undermines both the message and the medium. It could also conceivably
encourage Iraqis to question how seriously they should take -- how seriously we
ourselves take -- this whole notion of a free and independent press.
Indeed, one can only guess how this is playing with Iraqi journalists. After all, the
messages could hardly be more mixed. On the one hand, U.S. officials are offering
them workshops in media ethics. On the other hand, U.S. officials are violating the
most basic media ethics with blithe indifference.
But then, it's a sour joke in the first place that the Bush administration purports
to teach Iraqis how democracy works.
You can't teach what you don't understand.
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